Kamala Harris’ campaign is barely cold, and the Democratic Party is already regrouping for 2028, by which time they’ll be ready to retake the presidency — by hook, or more likely, by crook. On Dec. 9, the New York State Public Campaign Finance Board passed a resolution changing how a surplus is calculated for the State Public Financing program. This resolution perfectly exemplifies how New York’s Democrats continue to write the state’s campaign finance rules for their own benefit. For the 2024 election cycle, New York implemented a public campaign finance system. This system was designed to empower small-dollar donors by matching the donations up to $250. Under the program, a donation of $250 is matched for $2,000 by the state — meaning a $250 donation is actually worth $2,250. This system already benefits Democrats as they receive more donations from small dollar donors than Republicans. By refusing to match donations more than $250, Democrats have fueled their grassroots-donation machine with public money. Now that the Democratic infrastructure is showing signs of weakness, Democrats want to funnel that money directly back into the party. Under the Public Campaign Financing Program, any surplus of funds must be repaid to the New York State Public Campaign Finance Board up to the amount the campaign received. Instead of returning this money, Democrats have found a way to keep it. In passing the resolution along party lines, Democrats have allowed for transfers of non-public funds to state political committees to count as an expenditure during the surplus calculation. This is ingenious because the Public Campaign Financing statute does not require non-public funds (funds raised by the campaign) and public funds (funds campaigns receive from the Public Campaign Finance Program) be kept in separate accounts — meaning those funds are commingled. This differs from New York City’s matching program, which prohibits commingling funds and doesn’t permit funds transferred to a political committee to count as an expenditure. The state’s different rules mean if a Democratic candidate receives $3,000 from the state Public Campaign Finance Board, spends that money over the course of the campaign, and has $2,000 of non-public funds remaining, instead of returning that $2,000 to the state, they can transfer the remainder of those funds to the State Democratic Committee, which will then be counted as an expenditure. Because there is no way to keep track of which type of funds are transferred from campaigns to state political committees, it’s easy for Democrats to fund their state political party by using their beneficial public finance laws, turning campaigns into quasi-money laundering operations. It’s a simple process: Campaigns receive public funds, mix them with non-public funds, and then transfer the mixed funds to the State Political Committee. Since this transfer counts as an expenditure, the campaign doesn’t need to repay funds to the state. Allowing the co-mingling of funds makes it harder to track abuses, thereby opening campaigns to corruption by utilizing straw donors. This already happened, as Mayor Adams used straw donors to benefit from New York City’s public financing program. Under this approach, the public campaign finance scheme will let Democrats fill the State Democratic Committee with taxpayer dollars. While Republican candidates also receive support from the Public Campaign Finance system, they benefit much less from it since they raise less money from small-dollar donors. This means Republican candidates are less likely to have a surplus to give the State Republican Committee. Democrats designed the statute so they could benefit more from the public matching program. They then changed the rules so their excess cash can flood the State Democratic Committee’s coffers to help them win future elections. This has already happened this cycle, as multiple Democratic state senators have transferred more than $200,000 to the New York State Democratic Committee. Because the system disproportionately empowers Democrats, taxpayer dollars are more likely to fill the coffers of the State Democratic Committee. In 2024, 3.5 million New Yorkers voted for Donald Trump. Most of these voters would likely be displeased to learn that their tax money went straight into the coffers of New York’s Democratic Party. The law does not provide taxpayers the option to opt out of funding the program. Therefore, taxpayers who do not share the Democratic Party’s values are forced to fund it with little to no recourse. New Yorkers should reject this blatant cronyism and demand a Public Campaign Finance Program which does not benefit one party or open the door to corruption. Silverstein is a J.D. candidate at Villanova University and a fellow with Villanova’s McCullen Center for Law, Religion and Public Policy.